Optics
Optics is the study of the properties and behavior of light. In this section you can learn about everything from holograms to lasers and lenses.
Brown Noise vs. White Noise: Which Is Best for Quality Sleep?
Can a sound wave kill you?
Can two cans and a string really be used to talk over a distance?
What Color Is the Hottest Flame?
Why Do Bubbles Pop?
It's Elementary: The Periodic Table Quiz
How Electricity Works
How Faraday Cages Work
How Gasoline Works
What do bugs have to do with forensic science?
5 Things You Didn't Know About Autopsies
Do a Person’s Fingerprints Change After Death?
How Alchemy Paved the Way for Chemistry
How did Nikola Tesla change the way we use energy?
Time May Not Exist, Say Some Physicists and Philosophers
Why Does Ice Stick to Your Fingers?
What if I forgot to remove a piercing before an MRI?
A Kid-friendly Introduction to Magnets and Magnetism
What Is the Biggest Number? 6 Astronomical Contenders
How to Use the Rate of Change Formula in Math and Physics
Physics Displacement Formula: How to Calculate Displacement
5 Hugely Fun Facts About Mass (Not Weight)
Antarctica's Spooky Cosmic Rays Might Shatter Physics As We Know It
Entropy: The Invisible Force That Brings Disorder to the Universe
Half-Life Formula: Components and Applications
Could an 'X17 Particle' Hint at a Fifth Force in the Universe?
Image Gallery: Inside a Nuclear Power Plant
Learn More / Page 2
Why do we love looking at a perfectly stacked display of soup cans or six flower petals around a stamen? Our brains seem wired for it -- but why?
By Dave Roos
Primary colors are the blocks from which all other colors are built. But there's a lot more to know about them than the basic red, yellow and blue we learned about in kindergarten.
Modern color theory got its start with, believe it or not, Sir Isaac Newton, who also discovered a little thing called gravity and invented calculus.
Advertisement
Kaleidoscopes have been fascinating people since the early 19th century. Whether you think of kaleidoscopes as toys or as works of art, no matter how often you look inside, you'll never see the same thing twice.
When speed is everything and light marks the universe's speed limit, lasers are bound to be the answer. At least, that's what NASA and a bunch of Wall Street types are betting on.
Light travels pretty rapidly, but when it comes to faraway galaxies, that light takes a while to reach our telescopes. In fact, the light you see might actually be from billions of years ago.
What if there are colors within the visible spectrum that our brains can't perceive? In fact, there are. They're called impossible colors. But some researchers think they've discovered a way to see the impossible.
By Dave Roos
Advertisement
Seven ounces a ray! No, that's a lie. Measuring the weight of light is not as straightforward as that. So what's the more complicated explanation?
By Kate Kershner & Yara Simón